Summer Reading Ties New AU Students Together

American University News


This fall when first-year students arrive at American University, they will already have something in common. It's the book
We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang, and it's their required summer reading assignment.
The book is a critically acclaimed collection of essays on race and diversity in the contemporary United States. The
Washington Post called it "the smartest book of the year." A starred
Kirkus review says it's "a compelling and intellectually thought-provoking exploration of the quagmire of race relations." Its author is journalist and American Book Award winner Jeff Chang, who has written extensively on culture, politics, the arts, and music. He is currently the executive director of the Institute for Diversity in Arts at Stanford University.
A Community Text
Each year, American University's Writer as Witness committee chooses one "community text" that they have deemed important and timely. This year, the committee gravitated toward options that would raise issues of race in America and model ways of thinking and talking about these issues, according to committee chair and Department of Literature Senior Professorial Lecturer Adam Tamashasky.
"America, generally, and AU clearly need to engage in open, explicit, and difficult conversations about racism's persistent place in our history and our current events," he explains. "Jeff Chang's collection of essays will help set a tone of intellectual courage, curiosity, and complexity as a new cohort of AU students arrives to begin their collegiate experience."
When students arrive at AU this fall, they will discuss the book and write about it in their College Writing classes. They can enter an essay contest honoring the best writing inspired by the book. And they can also see Chang in person, as he visits campus for the twentieth annual Writer as Witness Colloquium on Wednesday, September 6. Chang will address the AU community and meet with students and faculty to ...

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